Fish Commission to run an egg-collecting station at Elk Creek from the mouth of the Rogue. Hume built the station, and the government paid the salaries of the workers who collected the eggs and shipped them to Hume's hatchery in Wedderburn. Although his observations on salmon were well received in some quarters, they "often conflicted with the opinions of other pioneers in the field", and his attempts to control upriver fishing and dams met with resistance and with arguments that he was overfishing the river at its mouth. Despite Hume's attempts to preserve the fishery, fish runs, oscillating from year to year for a variety of reasons, trended downward over time. The total reported Rogue River salmon catch in 1877, Hume's first year on the Rogue, was ; the peak catch during Hume's life was in 1890, and the catch in 1908, the year of Hume's death, was . As fish runs continued to diminish, the state legislature closed the river to commercial fishing in 1935. Family life, death, and legacy In December 1877, the year after his move to Ellensburg, Hume married Mary Duncan, the 19-year-old daughter of a former New Zealander, George Duncan, who had lost his fortune in the stock market and hoped to make another by canning salmon in the U.S. According to Dodds, Mary led a relatively secluded life, working in her flower garden, writing letters, and talking to friends, and occasionally selecting clothing for Hume's store or acting as his secretary when he was sick. Although business occupied Hume most of the time, he seemed to value his wife's help, Dodds says, and "events indicated their mutual affection". In October 1908 Hume was traveling on the schooner Osprey, which was towing another ship, Enterprise, when a storm arose. The Enterprise was wrecked, but Osprey rescued its crew and arrived safely in Wedderburn. Hume, who had been exposed to wet and cold, grew ill, rallied briefly, then died on November 17. According to Dodds, "His dying wish was that he be buried at Hunt Rock overlooking his empire on the Rogue." In 1912, after she had sold the Hume holdings in Curry County, Mary Hume had Hume's body moved to San Francisco. Opinions vary about Hume's fish theories and practices, which influenced state and federal salmon management for many decades after his death. "Hume was ahead of his time", Dodds says, "in his belief in